SAP BI (MULTIPROVIDER)

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© 2011 SAP AG 1

Multi Provider Creation Based on

Sales and Planning Info Cubes

Applies to:

SAP BI 2004s or SAP BI 7.x. For more information, visit the Business Intelligence homepage.

Summary

In This article, I am going to explain the advantages of Multi Provider and scenarios where Multi Provider creation is recommended. This article will give you steps by step procedure to create Multi Provider.

Author: Venkateswarlu Nandimandalam

Company: Mahindra Satyam

Created on: 26 September 2011

Author Bio

Venkateswarlu Nandimandalam, working in Mahindra Satyam has one and half year experience in SAP BI 7.0 and he has been working in Production Support and Custom Development

Multi Provider Creation Based on Sales and Planning Info Cubes


© 2011 SAP AG 2

Table of Contents

Introduction: ........................................................................................................................................................ 3

Multi Provider: ..................................................................................................................................................... 3

Advantages: ........................................................................................................................................................ 5

Steps to create Multi Provider:............................................................................................................................ 5

Characteristics Identification: ............................................................................................................................ 11

Key Figures Identifications:............................................................................................................................... 12

Related Content ................................................................................................................................................ 15

Disclaimer and Liability Notice .......................................................................................................................... 16



© 2011 SAP AG 3

Introduction:

Normally the design of a data target such as an Info Cube or DSO is based on one business process, for

example, one Info Cube for sales billing processing and another one for sales order processing. In this way

BI will have multiple Info Cubes, each supporting an individual business process. In real time we will get

scenarios where data from two different Info Cubes needs to be joined.

SAP BI Supports queries based on a single Info Provider. To support reporting requirements across multiple

data providers, we need not to load data from the individual data providers to the new data provider. The

system provides a better way to handle this situation with the object “Multi Provider”

Multi Provider:

A Multi Provider is a logical definition that doesn’t physically store data. The data lies in the underlying data

provider on which the Multi Provider is created. We can create a Multi Provider with combination of the

following objects.

Note: Multi provider uses union operation.

i) Info Cube

ii) Data Store Object

iii) Info Object

iv) Info Set

v) Aggregation Level



© 2011 SAP AG 4

We can see in the below figure.

In our example we are going to create a Multi Provider based on two Info Cubes, one is Info Cube on

planning data and other one is on actual sales. While the actual Info Cube stores the data from actual sales,

the plan Info Cube stores the data on planning.

Another example of creating a Multi Provider based on Info Cube and Info Object which has sales Info Cube

and the Info Object 0MATERIAL. This is required where you want to find the slow moving materials.

We can also create a Multi Provider when the Info Cube we have created becomes large. In this case we

can split the Info Cube into small cubes and store the data based on year, and then create Multi Provider on

top small cubes and execute the report at Multi Provider level.

Info Cube Master Data Data Store Object

Info Set Aggregation

Level

Multi Provider

Queries



© 2011 SAP AG 5

Advantages:

i) Designing Info Cubes based on individual business process is much simpler and allows for the

combination of various Info Cubes at a later stage.

ii) Multi Provider allows our design of the Info Cubes simple and small.

iii) Sample Info Cubes are easy to maintain.

iv) The system uses parallel processing when queries on a Multi Provider are executed.

Example: when a query is executed on Multi Provider which is created on plan versus actual sales cubes,

the system internally starts multiple sub queries in parallel. After the results of these queries are available,

they are combined using the union operation and presented to the user. The union operation combines result

data sets from sub queries.

Steps to create Multi Provider:

Step1: Open the RSA1, click on Info Provider in left side. Right click on the Info area in which we have to

create Multi Provider and select “create Multi Provider”



© 2011 SAP AG 6

Step2: Give the Multi Provider technical name and description (Technical name allows maximum of 9

letters). If we want to create Multi Provider as a copy of another one, we have to give the name in “Copy

from” field. After filling the details click on create.

Steps3: In the next screen we have to select on which objects we are going to create multi provider. We will

have 5 tabs (Info Cubes, Data Stores, Info Objects, Info Providers and Aggregation Levels).

Be default we will get all the Info Cubes in the system, under the 5 tabs we will have “display options”. In this

we have 3 options as mentioned below.

i) Display all Info Providers.

ii) Only display selected Info Providers.

iii) Only selected and Info Area.

For our scenario we will select 3rd option and click on Info area symbol as shown in below screen.



© 2011 SAP AG 7

Now we will get all the Info Areas in the system, select BW_AREA and click on tick mark (Copy).

In the next screen we will get the Info Cubes created under this Info Area. As we are going to create Multi

Provider on Plan versus Actuals data, select the two Info Providers and click on enter.



© 2011 SAP AG 8

Step4: In the next screen we will get the Multi Provider editor. Left side we will get the selected objects (in

this case two info providers) with underlying objects.

Step5: Multi Providers also works on multi dimension concept. Once we create multi provider we will get four

dimensions (three dimensions are system defined and one mandatory customer defined). We can see in the

below screen



© 2011 SAP AG 9

Step6: As we are planning to compare the actual versus plan data in multi provider, we are adding the

below objects and dimensions in Multi Provider.

1) Organization: i) 0SALESORG and 0DIVISION.

2) Product: i) BW_PROD ii) 0MATL_GROUP.

3) Time Characteristics: i) 0CALQUARTER and ii) 0CALYEAR.

4) Navigational Attributes: i) BW_PROD_0DIVISION and ii) BW_PROD_0MATL_GROUP.

5) Key Figures: i) BW_VAL and ii) 0NET_VALUE.



© 2011 SAP AG 10

We can see the final design of our Multi Provider in the below screen.



© 2011 SAP AG 11

Characteristics Identification:

Now we have to identify the characteristics included in the Multi Provider and match them to the

characteristics or navigation attributes in the base info cubes. To do this we have to click on “Identify

Characteristics” button as shown in below screen.

In the next screen we will get the each info object is supplied from which info cube. We have to confirm by

selecting the info object from two info cubes.

If we have two characteristics coming from single cube, it shows all the characteristics and we have to

decide which characteristics need to matched from each cube.

In the below example we have 0DIVISION from sales actuals cube and two characteristics from sales plan

cube (0DIVISION and navigational attribute BW_PROD_0DIVISION). In our case as we need only

characteristics we haven’t selected the navigational attribute.



© 2011 SAP AG 12

In the same we have to do for all the characteristics.

Key Figures Identifications:

In the same way as we did for characteristics, we have to click on “Select Key Figures” button. We have only

two key figures in our multi provider.

i) BW_VAL

ii) 0NET_VALUE



© 2011 SAP AG 13

Select the key from each info cube as mentioned in the below screen.

Select the key figures as mentioned below and do the same for 0NET_VALUE.

Once the identification of Characteristics and key figures is completed, click on check and activate. You will

get the active Multi Provider under Info Area BW_AREA after it is successfully activated.

We can see the same below screen.



© 2011 SAP AG 14



© 2011 SAP AG 15

Related Content

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/2f5aa43f-0c01-0010-a990-9641d3d4eef7?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/en/cf/bc734190ba137de10000000a155106/content.htm



http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/en/cf/bc734190ba137de10000000a155106/content.htm



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Disclaimer and Liability Notice

This document may discuss sample coding or other information that does not include SAP official interfaces and therefore is not supported by SAP. Changes made based on this information are not supported and can be overwritten during an upgrade.

SAP will not be held liable for any damages caused by using or misusing the information, code or methods suggested in this document, and anyone using these methods does so at his/her own risk.

SAP offers no guarantees and assumes no responsibility or liability of any type with respect to the content of this technical article or code sample, including any liability resulting from incompatibility between the content within this document and the materials and services offered by SAP. You agree that you will not hold, or seek to hold, SAP responsible or liable with respect to the content of this document.

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SAP BI (MULTIPROVIDER)